The present invention relates to a digital camera, and relates in particular to an activation process performed for a digital camera after it is powered on.
A currently employed digital camera is so designed that after power is switched on, system activation is performed by reading all the programs stored on a ROM to a buffer memory. At this time, following the powering on of the digital camera, since information, such as the format state of a memory card for recording image data or the number of frames remaining (remaining capacity), is obtained and an image-pickup system or a monitor is activated, about three to five seconds elapse before the camera is operational. That is, for about three to five seconds after the power has been switched on, depressing a release button will not result in the taking of a photograph. Therefore, when a digital camera user chances upon a desirable photo opportunity, the user will not be able to take advantage of it if the camera has not already been powered on.
In order to resolve this shortcoming, an example digital camera is proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-209545. With this example camera, for the process performed upon the activation of the system, the fewest possible programs, including a mode determination program for determining an operating mode, such as an auto photographic mode, a manual photographic mode, a self-timed photographic mode, a reproduction mode or a setting mode, are fetched and executed, then only a required program for the operating mode determined by the mode determination program is fetched and executed.
According to the digital camera disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-209545, since the number of programs to be read is smaller than in the case wherein all the programs are read and executed upon the activation of the system, the time required, from the switching on of the power until photographing is enabled, can be reduced. However, in this example, in each operating mode determined by the mode determination program, the image-pickup system is activated after information associated with the memory card is obtained. Therefore, the image-pickup system is not activated until the acquisition of information associated with the memory card has been completed.
The longest time required is for the process, one of those required for the activation of the system, performed to obtain the information associated with the memory card. Therefore, according to the method for activating the image-pickup system following the completion of this process, some activation time is still required, from the time the power is switched on until photographing is enabled, especially when a memory card having a large capacity is employed.